The Western Wind

I have a new book review out today of The Western Wind over at The Washington Times. My goal with these reviews is to help books find their readers through intelligent, compassionate criticism, and I had a really hard time with this one. It would be really difficult to know if a reader would like it based on the jacket description, and having read it, I feel like it’s in that category of “try it, give it 50 pages, and if you hate it put it down because it’s basically this. This is what it is.” So much depends on whether or not you can get into the language, because it’s not exactly carried by the characters, it’s more that the character development is the outward limits of the world of the book, if that makes sense.

But that’s not super helpful to people looking for the right book right now. I ended up comparing it to a movie, because that’s the closest to the “feel” I could come up with. I felt like that was kind of anti-literature, but more likely to be a reference people could understand. Frankly, I’d describe a book as a cross between Tom Stoppard’s inner monologue and a broken peppermint pig if I thought it was somehow accurate. I mean, I’d read that book.

Anyway, this wasn’t personally my favorite book, though I did like it, and I’m curious to look at her other books. I do think it’s so well done for what it is that it will be someone’s favorite book, so take a look at my review. Maybe you are that person! Maybe you know that person! Let’s help this book find its people.